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April 9, 2016

This Week On State of Belief

Over the last few months, we haven’t been silent on State of Belief, Interfaith Alliance’s weekly radio show and podcast, about our concern over anti-refugee sentiment and misguided, anti-LGBT ‘Religious Freedom Restoration Acts,’ but this week we take those issues head on. We’ll hear from Elizabeth Gill about the ACLU’s lawsuit against North Carolina’s anti-LGBT law. We’ll talk to Dr. Robert P. Jones, PRRI’s President, about public opinion toward immigration; and Professor Phil Zuckerman will look at the growing number of religiously-unaffiliated Americans.

An Unprecedented Legislative “Achievement”

This week, North Carolina lawmakers moved to pass some the most stringent limitations on LGBT equality in the nation. In response to this devastating development, the Americans Civil Liberties Union partnered with Lambda Legal and Equality North Carolina to file a lawsuit against this legislation. We’ll hear from Elizabeth Gill, senior staff attorney with the ACLU, about what makes North Carolina HB2 an unprecedented attack against civil liberties – and local control, as well as the ACLU’s ongoing work to challenge discrimination, disguised as religious freedom, in many other states.

Do Americans even want a ‘wall’?

This campaign cycle has seemed to focus on immigration more than ever. The Public Religion Research Institute has just released a report addressing Americans’ true views on immigration, terrorism and refugees. Dr. Robert P. Jones, President of PRRI, will break down the report called How Americans View Immigrants and What They Want from Immigration Reform. We’ll look at the most notable findings and how demographics and religious affiliation affect views toward immigration.

Understanding the Nonreligious

Phil Zuckerman is a professor of sociology and secular studies at Pitzer College. Phil will sit down with Rev. Welton Gaddy to discuss his work as co-author of The Nonreligious: Understanding Secular People and Societies. He will talk about why it’s essential to understand the reasons for, and impact of, the ever-growing population of religious “nones.”

They Break It? You Buy It.

The South Carolina state legislature is currently considering a bill holding any religious group that sponsors refugees legally liable for any misdeed by any one of those refugees. Interfaith Alliance President Rabbi Jack Moline wraps up our show with a guest commentary on why this move constitutes a grave threat to true religious liberty.